Essay on “Secularism in India” Complete Essay for Class 10, Class 12 and Graduation and other classes.
Secularism in India
Best 6 Essay on “Secularism in India”
Essay No. 01
India is a secular country. Secularism means that everybody enjoys complete religious freedom. The government will not compel anybody to adopt any particular religion. Religious freedom is our fundamental right and it is written in our constitution. Everybody has the freedom to propagate any religion, to adopt any religion, or construct any religious building. No particular religion or construct any religious boiling. No particular religion will be taught in school textbooks. India is a country of different religions. Therefore, secularism is the only process in which different cultures can live and develop peacefully in this country.
Every citizen is free in his religious matters. All religions are treated equally. That is why there is a cordial relationship amongst the people having different religions. There is no religious distinction in government jobs. In India, minority communities enjoy greater religious freedom. They are allowed to live their life according to their customs and nobody can force their views on them. They have an equal right to vote and send their representatives to the parliament and other law-making agencies.
India is proud of this system of secular life. A country with such diverse cultural and religious fragments can do well only under a secular democratic set- up. A fundamentalist attitude in governance can split it up into small entities thus breaking the high values of its integrity. All the people belonging to different religious sects form parts of the important political parties or groups and stand untitled together whereas a problem of national integrity or security confronts us from within our country or outside. Some fanatics in every religion cause great miseries to those people who belong to other victims to these fanatics. Sometimes the politicians use religion as their tool to arouse the emotions of the people for religious conflicts. They poison the mind of the people for their selfish ends. Communal riots are an example of their bad shameful deeds. The citizens should not be misled in this way. They should live respecting other religions.
Essay No. 02
Indian Secularism
India is a Sovereign Socialist Secular Democratic Republic. The Constitution of India guarantees its citizens full freedom in matters of religious faith. One of the fundamental rights given by the Indian Constitution is the right to freedom of conscience and free profession, practice, and propagation of religion. But there is a lot of confusion about Indian secularism. The secular character of India means that there is no state religion. The Government does not favor any particular religion or sect. In the eyes of the law, all religions and their followers are equal. There is no discrimination on the basis of religion, faith, caste, deed, race, sex, etc. There is complete religious freedom. The Government neither favors nor opposes any religion. It regards religion and its practice as a personal affair of the citizens.
But it never means India is anti-religion, or irreligious, or indifferent to religion. It only means the Indian Government is neutral in matters of different faiths and religions. India is inhabited by various races, castes, communities, and followers of different religions. There are the Hindus, the Muslims, the Christians, the Sikhs, the Jains, the Buddhists, the Jews, the Parsis, and others. This diversity of religions is a unique feature of India. All these religions have been flourishing side by side for centuries. Thus, it is in the fitness of things that India is a secular country. It signifies religious tolerance, amity, and a feeling of oneness in spite of large variety.
Basically, India has always been religiously a federal nation. There have existed many different faiths and religions since the hoary past. In Hinduism itself, there are hundreds of sects following different religious practices, rites, and rituals. Sometimes the difference between one sect from the other is as wide as that between one religion and the other. India has been the birthplace of such great religions like Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism. The majority of the Indian “population consists of the Hindus, but the followers of other religions enjoy equal rights and privileges. The religious life in India represents a complete but wonderful pattern. Jainism and Buddhism, the offshoots of Hinduism, marked the first great revolt against many useless and irrelevant rituals and rites. Muslims in India form the largest religious minority. India is one of the largest Islamic nations.
The Christian church in South India is much older than the coming of Islam in India. St. Thomas, one of the first twelve disciples of Christ, was the first preacher of Christianity in India. The Parsis came in the 8th Century seeking refuge in India from religious persecution in Iran. The Jews came earlier about 2000 years ago. Thus, India has been a country of many faiths and religions from the very beginning. India has always followed the policy of religious tolerance, co-existence, harmony, and peace. India is secular and yet profoundly religious. The law of the country guarantees all its citizens’ freedom of faith and worship. One can follow and preach any religion as long as it does not interfere with the religious freedom and rights of other people. It is in keeping with the history and construction of Indian society that we follow a secular policy and allow complete freedom in matters of religious faith and preaching. Even non-believers and atheists have the same equality before the law as do the others professing certain faiths and religions. Pt. Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India considered religion as a means of inner development of the individual. He explained secularism in very clear terms. Once he said, `We shall proceed on secular and national lines. India will be land as in the past, of so many faiths, equally honored and respected, but of one national outlook, not I hope, a narrow nationalism living in its own shell but rather the tolerant, creative nationalism which believing in itself and the genius of the people, takes full part in the establishment of international order”.
Mahatma Gandhi, the father of the nation, under whose worthy leadership we achieved freedom, was deeply religious but had great respect for all religions and faiths. Ultimately he died for the cause of religious and communal tolerance and harmony which are the basis of true secularism. Even if India had not been declared a secular country, she would have remained secular in spirit. The Hindus and Hinduism regard different religions as different paths leading to the same, Ultimate Reality. The Indian saints have time and again declared that all religions are good and aim at man’s salvation and spiritual progress. The Vedas, the ancient most spiritual documents of mankind have said that God is one, but sages call it by various names.
The fathers of the Indian Constitution did not believe Mandan) theory of religion as the opiate of the masses, but they believed that religion is personal, so declared India a Secular State. Recently there have been so much communal hatred, fights, and tension in India. It is mainly because of the narrow selfish and parochial interests of certain political parties. The people of India, by and large, are secular, peaceful, and believe in secularism. These politicians are to blame for communal and religious riots because they have had been using different communities as their vote-banks.
Essay No. 03
Secularism in India
India went in for secularism at the time of Independence because she wanted to offer equal status to all religions. The framers of the Constitution had visualized a peaceful and united India over the years, different communities have developed hostile attitude towards each other. There have been communal riots leading to deaths and destruction of property. Certain steps to check the divisive forces which lead to communal riots are essential to preserve the integrity of the country.
The Constitution of India specifically lays down that no citizen of the country shall be discriminated against on the basis of community, caste or Creed. It clearly states that all people shall have the freedom to practice the religion of their choice, without any interference from the State. The State shall not uphold any particular religion as its own. Thus the secular character of the Indian polity was recognized and confirmed at the time of the inception of the country.
In spite of the several divisive forces at work, India has been successful in maintaining its secular character. A round of any city of India will convince one that secularism obtains in the land. One would come across temples, mosques, gurudwaras, and churches, nestling close to each other. People of different communities participate in each other’s religious festivals. They partake of the sheer joy that comes out of fellow-feeling and innocent camaraderie. They live together as equal citizens of a free India.
The reason for the country’s adopting a secular set-up for the people lies basically in the Indian culture. The Indian culture postulates reverence not only for One own religion but also respect and tolerance for other religions. The Indian culture is in fact the composite product of experiences over the centuries On a soil which gave shelter to and nurtured a variety of communities. Besides, the partition of the country was accepted by the father of the Indian National Movement. They did so not because they disliked a particular community, but because it was insisted upon by the then Muslim leaders. Actually, our national leaders looked upon the Muslims in India as part, and parcel of the Indian civilization and culture. Therefore, they were happy to retain a part of toe Muslim population even after the partition.
No profession is barred to members of any community in India. Even the police and the army have members of the minority communities. Not only that, in the past wars with Pakistan, Indian Muslims in the army and the Air Force and also the, Christians achieved spectacular successes, and made sacrifices for the country. Also the competitive examinations like I.A.S., I.E.S. (Indian Economic Service) and (Indian Railway Service) and the like are open to all. Anyone fulfilling the merit eligibility is allowed to join the service.
Another reason why the Indian Constitution framers decided to go for secularism was that they wanted India to be a democratic State. The concept of democracy envisages freedom to the citizens in all their activities. So much so, the different types of freedom are made, inviolable by having been enshrined in the Constitution under the headings Fundamental Rights. Any other character for the Indian polity other than the secular would have been incompatible with the concept of democracy.
However, this is not to say that all communities have always lived peace all over the country. Hindu-Muslim riots have several times broken out in different parts of the country. Sometimes these riots have caused considerable damage to human lives and property. Places like Aligarh Muzaffarnagar, Meerut and Hyderabad have been particularly vulnerable to communal tensions and have been afflicted by communal disturbances. Communal riots in Bhiwandi (near Bombay) and the consequent toll of human lives and destruction of property are a case in point. Anti-Sikh riots took place in November 1984, leading to thousands of deaths and huge loss of property. The riots broke out all over the country after the assassination of the then Prime Minister Mrs. Indira Gandhi by two of her security guards.
But a dispassionate and objective analysis of the riots has thrown up certain interesting and revealing bits of information. These facts refute the criticism as to the validity of maintaining secularism in the country. The investigating teams, and the judicial enquiries. have brought to the fore the causes that lead to the communal tension and riots. It was discovered that often anti-social elements and goondas from the two communities are at the back of these riots. They first engineer a Minot clash to begin with. Then they go about fraying the tempers of their respective communities. They thus succeed in exciting them to acts of violence and revenge, Obviously, they do so because they are the ones who stand to gain from the disorder and breakdown of law and order. When the riots are on, they go about looting the property indulge in arson and they take away a lot of goods belonging to the rival community. This further inflames the situation and the two communities get to each other s throat with enraged feelings.
Many a time, a misunderstanding over a trifle” has also led to communal, tension. For example, a cycle rider of one community accidentally hitting r a member of the other community, may spark off a riot. This happens, because his totally innocent action is misunderstood to be intentional. Once the youth of the two communities get incited, there is no stopping them. By the time the police reach the spot and try to bring the situation under control, a few heads have rolled and some property has been destroyed.
One of the most chronic causes of the communal riots is the manoeuvring by politicians to political advantage out of the hostility between the two communities. Each political party wants to create and maintain vote banks for the purpose of winning elections. To this end, they incite communal feelings. They keep reminding the people of their communal identity so that they could exploit the communal feelings of voters at the time of elections. That is why, we find, each political, party fields a Muslim, candidate from the Muslim dominated area and a Hindu candidate. from the area where the Hindus are in majority. These candidates, having won on communal votes, many a time find it difficult to rise above sectarian feelings. They tend to think in terms of looking after their constituencies on communal lines. The Bhiwandi riots were reportedly engineered by motivated politicians who wished to make their presence felt by their opponents. It is a pity though, that the secular nature of the Indian fabric is sought to be damaged by the vested interests for their narrow individual ends. The communal tension between the Hindus and the Sikhs in India is also political in nature. Left to themselves, the Sikhs and the Hindus have always lived in peace. Their culture, religion and values teach the same norms of behavior.
However, the redeeming feature. is that these .riots last only a short time. Life does return normalcy and the two communities begin to live in peace. This becomes possible, because basically, there is no ill-will between the Hindus and Muslims or the Sikhs and the Hindus. By and large, they have been living together and sharing each other s joys, and sorrows. If there had not been essential fellow feeling, the different communities could not have lived together for decades and the v communal tension would have been a permanent feature.
Secularism can be further strengthened by the leaders of the two communities taking upon themselves to instill feelings of brotherhood and friendliness among their respective communities. They should form peace committees whose responsibility should be to see to it that the minor incidents are not misunderstood and do not flare up into riots.
Essay No. 04
Secularism in India
India is the home of many religions. Here Hinduism, Islam, Christianity, Buddhism, Jainism, etc, have thrived side by side. The instances of religious bigotry and persecution are rare in the history of India. On the other hand, the persecuted people from other countries got refuge in this country. It would have been unwise to violate the ancient traditions of tolerance and magnanimity. Mahatma Gandhi, the Father of the Nation, dedicated all his life to the unity of the Hindus and Muslims. He laid down his life for the noble cause and the nation could not be so ungrateful as to throw his teachings over-board and carve out a patch, which was entirely different from his noble teachings and ancient Indian traditions. Gandhiji has left an indelible imprint on the mind of the present generation and the Gandhian philosophy will continue to be a beacon light to posterity.
Again, the world has progressed with the advancement of Knowledge. Every modern State professes faith in democracy which stands for equal rights for all citizens, irrespective of their sex, caste or creed. To make India a theocratic state would certainly have been a retrograde step.
Secularism as a political concept is the result of the evolution of progressive thought. In the past religion held sway even in the political affairs of the States in Europe and religious bigotry led to internecine quarrels and mutual war-fare. Thousands of people were burned at the stake as heretics. But with the progress of science free thinking was stimulated. It was realized that differences in religious views were not incompatible with loyalty to the State. Politics ceased to be the handmaid of religion and religion withdrew itself to private life. The States stopped discrimination on religious grounds and conferred equal rights on all the citizens irrespective of their religious views. It would have been barbarous for India to repeat history by making religion the sole guide in all spheres in the Age of Democracy.
India is the home of many communities. If she is to command loyalty from all her people, she must profess secular-ism. The majority community should not reduce the people of other communities to second-class citizens. All the citizens must enjoy equal rights and there should be no temptation to any citizen to divide his loyalty on religious grounds. It is secularism which can give a sense of security to the religious minorities and exact allegiance from them to the country. A State associated with a religion creates fears and uncertainties in the mind of the minorities. In Pakistan which is a theocratic State, there has been systematic extermination of the Hindus and this has created fear in the mind of the minority communities. A theocratic State inevitably leads to divided loyalty.
Lastly, it is because of secularism that India has maintained friendly relations with the Muslim countries in the Middle East and South East Asia and won an honourable place for herself in the comity of nations.
Essay No. 05
Secularism in India
India is unique in being a secular nation. It is a sovereign, socialist, secular, democratic, republic. The Indian Constitution guarantees its citizens full freedom in matters of religious faith. One of the fundamental rights and freedom granted to all citizens, individually and collectively, is the “right to freedom of conscience and free profession, practice and propagation of religion.” Moreover, every section of the society has the “right to conserve its culture, language or script and right to establish and administer educational institutions of their choice.” This freedom of culture, conscience and faith is one of the basic cornerstones of Indian democracy. But there is much confusion and misunderstanding about the secular character of India. Sometimes it may be construed that India is anti-religious, irreligious or indifferent to religion. However, Indian secularism is totally different in its meaning and content. It only means that there is no state religion. There is no favour to any particular religion and its followers. All religions and their followers are equal in the eyes of law. There is neither favour nor hostility towards any faith. It only means that the state is neutral in the matter of religious faith and its propagation. There cannot be any discrimination on the basis of religion, faith, caste, creed, race, sex, community, and language, etc. There is complete religious freedom unless it interferes in the freedom of other religions. Here in India, religion and its practice has been recognised as a personal and private affair. But it never means public and collective religious functions, etc., cannot be held. It only means that there is no state patronage or opposition to any particular religion.
India is a vast country, with more than a billion people _pf various faiths, religious sects, and cultures, etc. Its staggering diversity has been a mighty unifying factor to make it a strong and unified nation. There are various races, castes communities and religions co-existing in peace and harmony for many centuries. There are Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Jains, Parsis, Christians, Buddhists, Jews and a host of others. Hindus are in majority, forming over 82% of the total population. The Muslims are the single largest minority and constitute over 11% of the total population. Next come the Christians and the Sikhs. The communal intolerance and fight between the Hindus and the Muslims has been a legacy of the Britishers. They followed the policy of divide and rule and this ultimately led to the partition of the sub-continent into India and Pakistan at the time of Independence in 1947. Millions of Muslims left India for good and migrated to the newly formed Pakistan and yet millions of them stayed back in India, being assured of their security, safety and religious freedom. In post-independent India, the Hindu-Muslim conflict has been more or less backed and sponsored by certain vested interests. Hindus and Muslims, by and large, are tolerant and co-operative and like to co-exist in peace, harmony and respect for each other.
Secularism is the very essence of Indian democracy. It reflects the ancient Indian tradition of religious tolerance, co-operation and mutual respect for one another. Islam came to India with the Muslim conquests. The Muslims in India make it one of the largest Islamic nations. The contribution of Islam towards India’s culture and civilisation has been very significant and lasting. It has added colour, variety, strength and richness to Indian heritage and culture. The Christian Church here is much older than Islam. St. Thomas, one of the twelve Disciples of Christ, was the first preacher of Christianity in India. He was a contemporary of St. Peter in Rome. The Parsis came in the eighth century, seeking refuge from religious persecution in Iran and brought Zoroastrianism. The Jews came quite early, about 2,000 years ago and settled down chiefly in Mumbai, Pune, Kochi and Delhi. In Hinduism itself, there are hundreds of sects following different religious practices, rites, rituals, and manners of worship and prayer. Sometimes the difference between one sect from the other may be as wide as that between one religion and the other. This religious diversity represents a complete and wonderful pattern of unity, integrity and wholeness.
India has been always secular and yet profoundly religious. It is in keeping with this eternal spirit that our Constitutional fathers declared India a secular state, without any discrimination on the basis of faith and religion among other things. It was a great Indian value upheld by these leaders of great wisdom in the larger interest of India and its teeming millions. The secular character of Indian polity was further strengthened under the great leadership of Mahatma Gandhi during the struggle for independence. Himself a deeply religious Hindu, he had a great respect for all other religions and faiths. Ultimately, he died at the altar of British imperialism, based on religious divide and intolerance and for the cause of religious tolerance, communal harmony, which forms the very foundation of true secularism.
There have been communal and religious riots, conflicts and conflagrations during the last 50 years of our independence but mainly because of certain vested political and sectarian interests. These politicians and their parties have been using different communities as their vote banks. Lack of education, enlightenment, economical advancement, scientific temper, and existence of orthodoxy and obscurantism, aided and abetted by certain fanatic, fundamentalist and narrow-minded elements have been the main causes of communal disharmony in India. A majority of Muslims are still backward, illiterate, superstitious and unaware of modern, economic, scientific and technological advances. They are being exploited by some religious fanatics and so called political leaders to grind their own axe. Among the Hindus also there are sections of people subject to such exploitation. They become easy tools in the hands of these bigots and indulge in communal conflicts. There is an urgent need to be aware of these anti-social and anti-secular forces so that they may be exposed and effectively checkmated. The economic and cultural backwardness of these sections should be removed. They should be brought into the national mainstream so as to eliminate their self-imposed isolation, alienation and backwardness. It is natural that these economically weak and vulnerable sections should succumb to narrow sectarian pressures and rise in revolt in the name of religion against those who are better off and belong to the other community and faith. Removal of unemployment and backwardness, more equal distribution of national wealth and removal of imbalances in economic development of various communities only can ensure real and lasting secularism. It cannot prosper in poverty, economic discrimination, backwardness and slums because then the communities or people suffering from these evils can easily become prey to fundamentalist and reactionary communal forces in the country. We should not allow these communal forces to undermine our secular spirit, religious tolerance, peace, harmony, co-existence and respect for each other. No political leader or party should be allowed to raise the bogey of religion or community. Religion is a personal affair and has nothing to do with the day-to-day national affairs. In our public and social life, we should be guided only by national interests. Nation should always come first. All religions teach tolerance, peace, harmony, co-operation and respect for other religions and faiths. No truly religious person will ever indulge in communal violence, hatred or rioting.
Communal riots and clashes are a big hindrance in national integration, unity and economic development. Many a time, communal riots break out because of slackness on the part of the administration, police and law-enforcement agencies. Special task forces, committees, societies, and clubs, etc., should be established to face this menace. More and more people of different communities should be involved in the work of promoting religious harmony and secularism. The agents of fanaticism, narrow, vested, political and communal interests should be dealt with sternly. Communal disturbances and riots in India are aberrations, in which the weak and the poor suffer most. They ‘should be checked, minimized and rooted out at the earliest. Communal flare-ups and riots are not always between the Hindus and the Muslims, but sometimes they are also between Sunnis and Shia groups or two different groups belonging to the Hindu community. But they all have their roots in ignorance, obscurantism and lack of proper understanding of their respective religions and their tenets and teachings. The virus of communalism should be weeded out by all means because it is a great obstacle in the way of secularisation of our polity, on which ultimately our unity, integrity, solidarity and progress ultimately depends.
Essay No. 06
Secularism in India
Secularism is the very soul ofIndian society and the democracy. India has a tradition of co-existence, tolerance, co-operation and mutual respect between all its social and religious groups. Islam came to India with Muslim conquerors. A large number of natives turned Muslims over the period and presently they make the second largest community of our nation. The contribution of Islam to Indian culture and civilisation has been spectacular. It added variety, colour and richness to native heritage. Islam enriched India with architectural wonders, the most precious being ‘Tajmahal’, the symbol of aesthetic India. Christianity had preceded Islam to India. St. Thomas, the twelve disciples of Christ arrived in India to preach his message when St. Peter was in Rome. Paris came to India in 8th century to escape from religious persecution in Iran. They brought Zoroastrianism. Jews sailed to India 2000 year ago to settle down in Mumbai, Pune, Kochi and Delhi. Hinduism itself was a religious conglomeration of thousands of sects having distinct beliefs, rituals, customs and practices. Three nearly different religions branched out of it, namely, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism having separate places of worship and holy books. In all, India remained a shining example of unity in diversity, nowhere else found in the world.
Honouring this eternal spirit of India, our constitution makers declared our nation to be a secular state without any discrimination. Although the people of our country are deeply religious yet they don’t harbour any ill will or intolerance against other faiths. Even during the freedom struggle the leaders who led it made secularism a basic policy to rally all the people against the British. The secular polity was fiercely strengthened by Mahatma Gandhi. Himself a deeply religious Hindu, he had great respect for all other religions and faiths.
To divide the Indians, the colonial rulers tried to destroy file spirit of secularism by aiding and abetting communal forces. Some of our people forgot that sacred tradition and played in the hands of British. Our country paid a terrible price for that lapse. India got divided into two nations and we lost father of, the nation, Mahatma Gandhi to the bullets of a degenerated fanatic who had no use for our secular legacy. It should teach us a lesson that only secular spirit will keep India going.
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